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How Older Women Help Younger Women Live for the Word of God Titus 2:3–5 · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: As we turn to Titus two three through five, Paul
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  Speaker 1: focuses on his instruction to older women, who will then
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  Speaker 1: also give direction for how the young women are to live.
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  Speaker 1: Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not
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  Speaker 1: slanderers or slaves too much wine. They are to teach
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  Speaker 1: what is good that they might help the younger women
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  Speaker 1: be prudent and namely, Now he fills out the details
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  Speaker 1: for instruction to the younger women through the older women,
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  Speaker 1: to have affection for their husbands, so let's just number these,
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  Speaker 1: and affections for their children. And to be self controlled,
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  Speaker 1: to be pure, to be carrying out household responsibilities, to
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  Speaker 1: be doing good, seven to be submissive to their own husbands,
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  Speaker 1: that the word of God may not be reviled. So,
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  Speaker 1: Father in Heaven, as we ponder what you are calling
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  Speaker 1: older women to be like and to do, and younger
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  Speaker 1: women to be like and to do, grant that men
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  Speaker 1: and women who are watching this would grow in their
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  Speaker 1: understanding of these things and in our impulses to be obedient,
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  Speaker 1: whatever our place. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: Older women are to be reverent in behavior. And the
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  Speaker 1: reason I put the Greek here is because it's a
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  Speaker 1: very unusual word. It's the only place in the New Testament,
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  Speaker 1: and Paul could have used a word similar to reverend
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  Speaker 1: or dignified that didn't have this connotation. But this word
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  Speaker 1: means fitting or suitable or appropriate, and this means priest,
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  Speaker 1: so behavior that befits a priest, which I take to
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  Speaker 1: me now it didn't have that literal connotation. It had
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  Speaker 1: grown away from that in a more general sense of reverence.
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  Speaker 1: But the fact that he chooses that word signifies he
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  Speaker 1: wants the older women to operate in the presence of
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  Speaker 1: God as though serving God, as though helping people to
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  Speaker 1: connect with God properly. This is a this reverence. Here
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  Speaker 1: is a God word disposition in the older women, which
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  Speaker 1: is going to be relevant because He's going to say
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  Speaker 1: to them that they may help the young women by
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  Speaker 1: teaching what is good. They're going to help the young
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  Speaker 1: women be prudent. So this teaching here, in this help
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  Speaker 1: here are the priestlike functions of an older woman. So
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  Speaker 1: be reverent in your behavior. Orient on God as his representative,
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  Speaker 1: as functioning in His presence, as serving him, and let
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  Speaker 1: that be the governing disposition of your teaching. The content
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  Speaker 1: of your teaching to help the young women be prudent,
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  Speaker 1: be thoughtful. Now, in between the reverent behavior that teaches
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  Speaker 1: what is good and helps young women be prudent. In between,
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  Speaker 1: there is a negative, not slender, and a negative not
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  Speaker 1: slave too much wine. In other words, guard what comes
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  Speaker 1: out of your mouth, and guard what goes into your mouth.
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  Speaker 1: And I put it like that because he's probably picking
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  Speaker 1: on some things that were typically problematical in the church
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  Speaker 1: there on Crete, And one of the things was that
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  Speaker 1: the older women were sometimes being careless with what they
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  Speaker 1: said about other people. And so I think Paul is
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  Speaker 1: reminding them, as priest like women in the presence of God,
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  Speaker 1: put everything you're about to say through the filter of
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  Speaker 1: truth and through the filter of love. Be prudent and
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  Speaker 1: self controlled yourself. Not just so he's going to say
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  Speaker 1: that to the young women, be controlled in what comes
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  Speaker 1: out of your mouth, and be controlled and what goes
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  Speaker 1: into your mouth, because there are things that can go
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  Speaker 1: into your mouth that unfit you for this task of
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  Speaker 1: reverent behavior and teaching what is good. Alcohol is notorious
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  Speaker 1: for both loosening the tongue and in making one un
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  Speaker 1: helpful in what you say, in what you do, so
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  Speaker 1: guard what goes into your mouth, and guard what comes
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  Speaker 1: out of your mouth, so that you are maximally useful
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  Speaker 1: in teaching what is good from the standpoint of a
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  Speaker 1: reverent posture in the presence of God. Now, it is remarkable,
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  Speaker 1: isn't it that they are given the job of caring
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  Speaker 1: for and guiding and teaching young women. And this, this
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  Speaker 1: should be a clear signal to us that in the
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  Speaker 1: church there should be intergenerational teaching and learning going on
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  Speaker 1: all the time, and that if it was done the
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  Speaker 1: way Paul conceives of it, probably a lot of other
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  Speaker 1: kinds of teaching might be unnecessary because so much wisdom
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  Speaker 1: would have been passed on between the older and the
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  Speaker 1: younger women. So what is he to What are they,
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  Speaker 1: these these older women too to? How are they to
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  Speaker 1: help the women be prudent and wise and thoughtful making
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  Speaker 1: good decisions? First, have affection for their husbands. And I
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  Speaker 1: translated it that way because this word is just that
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  Speaker 1: whole thing is one word loving husbands. But this word
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  Speaker 1: for love here is not a gape of some kind
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  Speaker 1: of mere duty that you do for someone you don't like.
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  Speaker 1: This is affection love. Same with the children, affection for
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  Speaker 1: their children, same kind of word, loving children. In other words,
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  Speaker 1: the first concern that these older women seem to have
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  Speaker 1: for the younger women is internal, not just do, but feel.
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  Speaker 1: This is a feel word, a filial affection for husband
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  Speaker 1: and child. This is way before submission, which is gonna
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  Speaker 1: come down here. You might say, whoa, why didn't he
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  Speaker 1: start with affect submission to your husband's Well he didn't.
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  Speaker 1: He saved that for last. The first thing he says
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  Speaker 1: is love them, love, and if you don't work at it,
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  Speaker 1: pray for the miracle of the change in your heart.
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  Speaker 1: So did you have affection for your children and affection
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  Speaker 1: for your husband? To be self controlled? That word is
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  Speaker 1: exactly the same word as the word spoken to older
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  Speaker 1: men in the previous versus. Older men are to be
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  Speaker 1: sober minded, dignified self control. That's the same word as
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  Speaker 1: used for the younger women here. And remember I said
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  Speaker 1: there that it didn't first mean sexual self control, but
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  Speaker 1: rather the control of all impulses, so that you don't
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  Speaker 1: act driven by carnal or worldly emotions or impulses. There
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  Speaker 1: is a settled, strong inner self that governs the life,
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  Speaker 1: and it's not blown about on the sea of impulse.
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  Speaker 1: Or emotion. Help the young women with that, older women
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  Speaker 1: show them how to do that, bring them to value
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  Speaker 1: that kind of self control. Pure. Now that probably does
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  Speaker 1: have connotations of sexual purity. And I say that just
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  Speaker 1: because here's an example of the way Paul used the word.
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  Speaker 1: I feel a divine jealousy for you, Corinthians, since I
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  Speaker 1: betrothed you to one husband to present you as a
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  Speaker 1: pure virgin to Christ. That's the word, and it's interesting
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  Speaker 1: that it would be used right alongside virgin here and
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  Speaker 1: surely then carrying a connotation of you haven't made yourself
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  Speaker 1: sexually impure before you marry your husband. So he wants
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  Speaker 1: them to be pure, at least in that regard. And
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  Speaker 1: remember earlier in the end of chapter one, it said
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  Speaker 1: to the pure, all things are pure. So this is
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  Speaker 1: not just unique to young women, it's for the whole church.
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  Speaker 1: But here he's applying it specifically to the young women
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  Speaker 1: carrying out household responsibilities. That's one word, carrying out household responsibilities,
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  Speaker 1: so workers of the house, working at home. It's sometimes translated.
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  Speaker 1: It would be a very misleading translation if you said
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  Speaker 1: staying at home, which I think one translation did. This
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  Speaker 1: is not a prohibition for a wife's taking her creative
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  Speaker 1: wares down to the market and selling them as part
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  Speaker 1: of the industry of the house. That this is not
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  Speaker 1: a prohibition of what the wife does besides whole housework.
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  Speaker 1: This is an exhortation. Don't neglect it. Don't neglect this
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  Speaker 1: precious reality of oi costs the household. Children matter, husbands matter,
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  Speaker 1: houses matter, order in the home matters, cleanliness matters, beauty matters,
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  Speaker 1: discipline matters, peace at home, and joy matters. This is
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  Speaker 1: a glorious calling and responsibility, and the fact that it's
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  Speaker 1: made light of is tragic. So he's saying to the
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  Speaker 1: young women, don't get so fascinated with other things that
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  Speaker 1: you think this household responsibility is a small thing. It
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  Speaker 1: is a glorious thing. If this falls apart in society,
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  Speaker 1: everything falls apart in society, and it is unusually given
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  Speaker 1: to you as an administration. Doing good the word is
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  Speaker 1: just good, but I think it means doing good. Here's
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  Speaker 1: what Paul says about women. Women should adore in themselves
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  Speaker 1: says for Timothy two ten with what is proper for women?
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  Speaker 1: So what should they adorn themselves with? Who profess godliness?
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  Speaker 1: Namely good works? That's your clothing. He says, do good.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, she's not just consumed with the domestic responsibilities,
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  Speaker 1: though there are seasons in life when one is consumed
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  Speaker 1: like that. But as opportunities arise, she does good in
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  Speaker 1: the community, she does good in the church, she does good.
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  Speaker 1: She's known as a doer of good. And then finally
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  Speaker 1: he gets to this issue of submission, and he says,
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  Speaker 1: be submissive to your own husbands. And here's the way
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  Speaker 1: I would define that. I would say it is a
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  Speaker 1: god word disposition to honor a husband's leadership. And the
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  Speaker 1: reason I use the word disposition here is twofold one.
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  Speaker 1: It really should come from within. If submission is simply
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  Speaker 1: coerced and given as an outward requirement with no inner
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  Speaker 1: disposition to honor a husband's leadership, it will not last
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  Speaker 1: and will become probably destructive. The second reason I use
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  Speaker 1: the word disposition is because it's the disposition that's decisive,
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  Speaker 1: not the behavior. Because a husband is a sinner, and
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  Speaker 1: if he misuses this leadership to try to draw this
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  Speaker 1: woman into sinful behavior, she may have a proper and
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  Speaker 1: godly disposition to honor his leadership, but she's gonna say
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  Speaker 1: to him. I cannot follow you in that because I
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  Speaker 1: am the servant of Christ and you are my lord
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  Speaker 1: at one level, but you're not my ultimate lord. And
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  Speaker 1: therefore I want very much to honor your leadership. But
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  Speaker 1: when you so debase your leadership as to ask me
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  Speaker 1: to be involved in that kind of sin, I must
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  Speaker 1: draw a line and say, my submission to Christ preempts
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  Speaker 1: my outward submission to you, even though I have a disposition.
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  Speaker 1: That's the reason I used the phrase one last thing
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  Speaker 1: to say, And perhaps I should have said it earlier.
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  Speaker 1: I had hoped to say it earlier, but it's good
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  Speaker 1: to end on it. The motive here is that the
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  Speaker 1: word of God may not be reviled. What that means
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  Speaker 1: means is this entire list of duties is not simply
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  Speaker 1: worldly wisdom, affection for husbands, affection for children, self control,
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  Speaker 1: pure doing household responsibilities, doing good in the community. All
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  Speaker 1: of that is motivated by a love for the Word
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  Speaker 1: of God. I don't want the word of God to
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  Speaker 1: be reviled. I love God. I love his word. So really,
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  Speaker 1: what we're saying here to the older women is help
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  Speaker 1: these women love God. Help these women love the word
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  Speaker 1: of God. Oh that our eight year old girls would
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  Speaker 1: love the word of God, that our fifteen year old
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  Speaker 1: teenage girls would love the word of God, that our
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  Speaker 1: twenty seven year old young moms with a couple of
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  Speaker 1: kids would love the Word of God. That's the motive
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  Speaker 1: behind all of this